(...)

26 meeting report

hello all!!
last saturday was the first saturday meeting; we were Michael, JP and me.
We discussed and brainstormed, and finally we outlined a "framework" of ideas
and related techniques to experiment with that can be seen as a future proposal:

" how machine and humans sense the reality ? "

following this broad concept we would develop a toolshack of tecniques to use afterward in the proposal, such as:

- video tracking / motion system
- non conventional recording/sampling -macro lenses - special cameras
- projection on non-conventional surfaces - ad. ex. fog, water, etc.

and explore ad ex. with:

audiovisual contiuum:
where are physically the boundaries between sound and air?
turbulence in fog with sounds : fine-record (with 600fps JP's camera) the movement of a speaker -sound- immersed in the fog

concept of time/movement:
build a projector that rotate on its own axis (25 turns every second) so the frame picture is still
ad ex.: http://www.marnixdenijs.nl/downloads/Spatial_reader.pdf


here some links related to the ideas discussed in the afternoon,
just to have some inspiration ;)

http://www.hentschlager.info/portfolio/feed/feed.html
http://www.evdh.net/
http://www.vms-at.com/


on 8 of february the second round, everyone is more than wellcome, in the physical
space of the JP home as well as the informational of this blog..

take care,
mat

about silence

to sarah: (you might know this, but anyway)

meeting jan. 26th

Hi all,
What time will it be on the 26th?
If this will be during mid-day I could possibly make it there.
I'd prefer an easy-to-find-place to meet in Brussel, if possible.:-)
Olga

saturday 26 meeting

hello guys,
We - JeanPaul, Michael and me- were thinking do a meeting on saturday 26 in Bruxelles
in the afternoon/evening, just to discuss about possible ideas and collaborations;
Everyone's nearby Brussels and want to join is more than welcome, the more the better :)
the venue is still to be decided, if you have same suggestions..
mat

Arnold's ideas

Hi, this is a short introduction of myself on this blog. I will react on some of the ideas already posted and also will (where possible) try to get some discussion going on.

First of all, i found it very inspiring to see so many talented people together in one room. I’m convinced that there will be some interesting results coming out of this Masterclass! Although i was there for only two days now, i think i got sort of an idea of each others fascinations and inspirations. I hope you have the same with me (or else just ask!)

About the different ‘plans’ then. The ideas and experiments of Lotta, Ambra and Filip regarding projections on the ‘contemporary’ body seem very interesting to me, because they closely relate to the ideas i had before applying for this Masterclass; i really want to use ‘my’ motion tracking system in a live performance / choreographic setting (ideally with live and spatial sound-/videoprojections). I definitely would like to contribute and co-develop these ideas into a project proposal!

Furthermore, i would love to make my moderate experience with motiontracking available to anyone interested. Maybe it can be used in the proposal of Olga. And for sure the ideas posted by Michael; i like the idea of working on this abstract conceptual level regarding light, space and motion (like regarding videoprojection as thrown light!)

For all our ideas, i think it is very important to develop them on different ‘levels’ simultaneously, so that we can come to a project-proposal that follows the guidelines as stated in Bram’s last email:

1
Conceptual level. This is where the blog should be used for the most i think. Like posting references to interesting projects to get things going on in our heads (thanks Bram for this new york dance piece!). And also maybe historic examples etc.

I will try to post some things soon. In the mean time you should see:
- the video example that michael mentioned in his post (the ‘Man with Mirror’ video on YouTube, example of Boris)

2
Working out and prepare experiments to be done next workshop. This is i think VERY IMPORTANT. I really think we all should prepare our experiments in advance of the next workshop, at least on paper. In my experience, working with technology, tends to be very time-consuming, and we only have a few days each workshop...

I would like to work out experiments regarding:
-motion tracking in general. Working with camera-tracking, but maybe also different sensors like pressure- or bending sensors in clothing.
-live projection on bodies. How can we make movents of a body in space trigger movements/displacement of videoprojection in space, for instance?

3
Get some idea of what you want to do with your part of the budget, so that there won’t be any ‘doubling’ of expences. For now this is maybe not clear at all, at least not for me, but i do already have some ‘wishes’ ;-)
For instance, i would like to spend something on:
-Eobody2 USB 8 SensorBox (http://www.eowave.com/products.php?prod=39)
maybe i want to buy this in advance of the next workshop already.
-different Sensors
-Overhead expences (traveling, accomodation)
-Materials

Ok, that’s it for now,
Have a nice weekend!

Arnold

Klaus Obermaier/Chris Haring

...as I told a little bit about ideas and what we had tried, my boyfriend mentioned a solo experimenting with both similar thoughts (to things I wrote before) and also exploring video projections on the body.

D.A.V.E. is based on an idea by the media artist and composer Klaus Obermaier,
and was developed in collaboration with the choreographer and dancer Chris Haring.

I have seen another piece by the same austrian choreographer, Chris Haring/Liquidloft where he worked with miming voices in a very creative way, so he's definitely someone to check out as inspiration for many things. It's interesting this thing that things somehow always been done... but he didn't use clay I think;-)

What’s novel about D.A.V.E. is the concentration of the projections on the body in motion while
avoiding conventional spatial and screen projections. You don’t think about the video anymore;
it just belongs to the body. It’s a part of the body, or rather the performer is part of the video.
The boundaries grow indistinct and are deactivated.
Video projection, physical presence and acoustic environment thus blend into a symbiosis and create
their own new reality: D.A.V.E. – digital amplified video engine.

D.A.V.E. switches effortlessly between young and old, male and female; he distorts his body, his limbs.
His anus recites biblical passages both profound and ironic with the voice of a child;
the body dissolves into streaming worlds of digital images.
D.A.V.E. deals with the manipulation and reformulation of the human body by means of biotech,
genetic engineering and computer technology.
D.A.V.E. plays with real and virtual situations and the dissolution of the boundary between these
two states, morphs between nightmare ,redemption and transformation, culminating in the
suspension of physicality.

Review and Outlook...

i would like to post some references of own and related work (like done already in during the last workshop) for documentation reasons but also to point out my interests and where it might lead to... i hope i can keep myself a bit clear in thoughts but i would like to put on some very different refelctions and ideas and hope of plenty of feedback from you...

an interesting issue and discussion during the "sound workshop" was related to space and the characteristics of it - f.e. when Boris put on different frequencies and therefore brought objects in the room to "live" / vibrate or while walking around the space getting different "impressions" of the same sound - thus sound instantly "interacts" with a human body when he changes position in space - this very basic sort of interaction (away from any digital technics) - the human/space relation and the possibility of exploring is something i would like to work around...

transferring this idea to seeing in place of hearing could suggest to deal with space and thatfore with 3 dimensions in place of a two dimensional screen - this was always a very frustating experience during some vj-gigs in the past as one gets captured by a frame, a flat surface placed in space, which might be bearable for dealing with narration but less for creating a visual athmosphere in a space, a sort of sublayer of the physical environment (sometimes i got the feeling that a "disco ball" has more effect as simple as it is in comparison to a small screen somewhere in the upper left corner of a stage)...

As Projections are nothing more than thrown light, a "beamer" or the light that comes out of it also uses air as medium (like sound does) to be transported from A to B - but speaking about a screen, B mostly absorbs all information on a framed surface. The advantage of thrown light is that it doesnt neccessarily need a screen - the digital layer (image/video) can be merged with any physical object... The result thatfore depends not only on the qualities of the virtual part (as screens are optimized to show the best possible equivalent of what was created for a computer screen mostly) but also on physical qualities which might (be used to) influence the digital part - roughness, smoothness, glossiness, dullness, etc. can become parameters of sound and image... some of this ideas where tried to be realized in a very basic way in my last installation which dealed with a transformed surface in a reflective material surrounded by materials with other qualities that where related to sound and image...


documentation video scr_mod


references:
visomat
pablo valbuena
man with mirror (very impressive example of dealing with reflection, virtual and physical space...)

outlook: object (space) - image (projection) - sound (acoustics)
a further development of the "augmented objects"/"transformed screen" mentioned before could place the "object" (screen) in a central position of a space affecting its environment through f.e reflection,... the basic idea lays still in affecting a space in a visible way some further thoughts led to the idea to organize reflection to its space (surrounding walls, ceiling, floor) which would generate the form of the "projection object" - i am not sure about this as i saw the object until now more as something autonomous - like a living structure affecting different spaces in different ways... like a part of a city cut out of it`s context and viewed from above with it`s informal almost random composition of roofs affected by sunlight...



the way of controlling the digital part (projection) could be a symbioses of automatization, interaction with the observer and dictation by a performer (i guess this part might be worked out during trials) - i would like to call on this place arnold and his motion capture installation using infra red cam and light - would it be possible to make some trials with it during the next workshop or even before (maybe you can post some experiences you made with your system - did you use a sort of wide angle lense for the cam? where can you get those things and in which price category do they lay (budget wise)...

the previous thoughts should not be seen as definite proposal but more as subject of discussion and finding nodes of collaboration - i would appreciate to get some feedback from you guys - maybe also from bram (as you saw the installation at eetavontuur), or people who are/were guiding the workshops (and are still following here on the blog ;) )...

Live Stage: GLOW (nyc)

Chunky Move: Glow :: February 7-9, 2008; 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm :: February 10, 2 pm and 3:30 pm :: The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC :: Co-Presented with The Joyce Theater.

Glow is an illuminating choreographic essay by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek and interactive software creator Frieder Weiss. Beneath the glow of a sophisticated video tracking system, a lone organic being mutates in and out of human form into unfamiliar, sensual and grotesque creature states.

Utilising the latest in interactive video technologies a digital landscape is generated in real time in response to the dancer's movement. The body's gestures are extended by and in turn manipulate the video world that surrounds it, rendering no two performances exactly the same.

In Glow, light and moving graphics are not pre-rendered video playback but rather images constantly generated by various algorithms responding to movement. In most conventional works employing projection lighting, the dancer's position and timing have to be completely fixed to the space and timeline of the video playback. Their role is reduced to the difficult chore of making every performance an exact facsimile of the original. In Glow, the machine sees the performer and responds to their actions, unlocking them from a relationship of restriction and tedium.

contradiction projections/body

Hey,

I just wrote a lot of things about the contraction in combining the medium 'body' and the medium 'projection'. I deleted it (because it was to confusing) and decided to just ask this difficult question: Why combining projections with bodies and what will happen when you do that in a club? (Not that I want to give doubts about the project, I just think that this is a very interesting debate and will give practical guides to Lotta, Ambra and Filip and hopefully to all of ous.)

PS: Maybe some of the labels with this message could be a base to build answers on this question.

thoughts about collaboration

I just wanna say that my idea proposal is not fixed at all (comment to Ambras thoughts below). The reason I wrote the first thing in a rather clear way is that I had an interesting further discussion with Boris about collaboration. To me the very first thing , that we should propose our own projects (not first developed in groups) was a bit weired in relation to my previous thoughts about collaboration (I was very much thinking democracy and still am). Boris made me see a different aspect (and this is again me interpreting what we spoke about, it's not quoting Boris) that it's good to propose your own project idea, not always for the idea itself, but as guidance to each others, let's call it artistic values...

This conversation in mind, made me brainstorm further on what we had talked about animation and projection, but with the goal to shape a project from what was already there on Saturday. My wish is not to fulfill that exact piece of text, but my wish is to expand ideas into a theme that can be input for further experimenting and further ideas. What that theme is, is for me very important to discuss at this blog since brainstorming on idea concepts also fits very well in written form and can help us a lot to go further with the more practical experiments we are up to soon.

Since it's open... I have changed a lot already by trying the idea of placing it in a club (below) and this might give you a real hint of that it wasn't ready before... and not now either;-)

Hope I made somewhat sense... Lotta

Morf gogo dancing and VJ:ing

Hey!

...with a slight alteration I think the thing I wrote before (projections on bodies) would be very interesting and well functioning as an ongoing act in a club... (thanx Bram).

Picture the (maybe) 2 performers instead off the ground (still on two sides of a room) above club audience and think that what happens is a morf of gogo dancing and VJ:ing that plays with the old roles of both medias. I think the human transformation idea is really cool to explore in that kind of environment. Also I think strong images built up in a more vj like dramaturgy (I don't know much but...) would really add something to the whole concept.

See You!

olga's proposal

Hi all,

I hope last day was inspiring day.
I Would love to see some pictures on the Blog, as I had to miss all the goodness.

Since time is running fast, and submission for the money is allready so soon, I am wondering what's the status quo?

I would love to do this modular networking project, which I have been discussing with Jean Paul and Boris, on saterday.
The idea is to create a modulair system of multiple computers connected, generating different algorhythms/renders of the same input.
As we discussed; 'Ein gesamtskunstwerk', in the social sense of the word.

The idea is to explore a system that could analyse a certain input. ( i.e. motion-tracking, sound-analyses, hearbeats, etc etc).
Then the real core-idea is to get to know MAX/MSP, and learn how to generate CG images from this input to create a unique (and hopefully artistic ) output. So, everyone that joins this plan, would then create a different output from the same input- source.

As a result, it could be interesting to map these various output next to eachother, or ON top of each other, etc...
(and offourse during this process a lot of other related ideas might grow.)
What I like about this idea as well, is that it could be joined by just 2 people, but also 12 or 122.
(in that sense it 's a modular and networked system).

For me personally I like the idea to explore and learn more about realtime rendering and 3D in MAX MSP.
Also I like the fact that anyone, who is interested can particpate, and still create a unique artwork from a global concept.

Personally , it would make sense for me, to spend this money wisely, and invest in this software.
Since this Masterclass-project is about exploring in general, I like the idea of creating something that could allways be expanded and developed after the Masterclass too.

Hopefully someone here likes this idea.
What about you Jean-Paul ?...and Mattia?? ...Anyone??

So, I could be in Brussels for a little meeting on 27th or 26th of january to discuss this.
I dont know how we will have to apply? Do we get info on how to do apply?
Is everyone doing that individually?
I missed this info maybe on sunday?

Thanks,
hope to hear from you.

+
hope to see you all at PLAZA+ in Eindhoven, this weekend!

Best,
Olga

Short thoughts

Hallo I'm Ambra,

I just want to write a small resume of my latest thoughts.

I'm happy to going on experimenting with video projections on live bodies and the collaboration with Filip and his animation will be enriching the process.

As i was working on it last summer now working out ideas with Lotta,Filip and Arnald I'm getting new inputs...so I will be happy to go on and perhaps come to a point of exibhition.

Lotta I like that you brainstormed a lot around it!And all the ideas are very interesting.

But I have to say that I have the feeling you just posted your own ready made idea of show, I don't say is bad, but to me for example it sound perhaps not so charming anymore ( also for others to take part in it) because it looked a already finished process.

What I would like is to find easy and smart methods to work with this tools and then if we all go for the same contents and aesthetichs I would say let's go for a commun exibhition or demonstration.

Another possibility that I like is to present each own version of the same technical tools, developing each ones our own perspective or aesthetic or performance...whatever it come out of this experimentation.

I booked my flight for Brussels the 16th of february and I will go back the 24th..just that you and Filip basicly know my schedule and relative possibilities of presence.

idea

This is the idea about live animation that I worked/spoke about with specially Filip and Ambra. Down below is our idea filtered through my brain, and as we spoke with Boris... it's still totally open, so see it as inspiration if you wanna contribute.

the live animation of a contemporary body

Concept:

Through both real and videoprojected changes we transform two people between each other, age, looks and gender. With a surreal language punch at beauty industry, look behind facial transformations as smiles, yawnings and surgery. Wishing to awake thoughts and also create a bit of disgust.

Estetchics;
Raw, naked, dark, dirty, abused, infected, (secret plastic surgery clinic?).
Movements inspired by clay animated movies.

Colors:
Brown, blood, sepia

visual set up:

two people (A&B), one on each side of a rectangular room (prefearably man and woman...)

one camera catching person A who with a projector is projected on person B on the other side of the room, a second set up going the other way around.

video mixer chosing who is projected upon.

Additional projecting material (prerecorded)

set up audio:

prerecorded voice fragments of different people, sometimes synced with prerecorded video material.

loudspeaker by each person in the space

maybe small microphones for live speach (person A's voice through B's speaker...)


CRUCIAL:

Image fitting and live lip sync!


Audience:
Stands on the long side of the room, able to see actions in both directions.
the focus shifts from right to left, sometimes left person is projected on the right and at other times right person on the left. Sometimes prerecorded material (possible on both?)


TOOLS:
"minimal" live physical movements from 2 dancers (ex. inspired by Butho)
clay animations (transforming body parts, ex perfect boobs deforming, both live and on video)
changing layers of clothes
layers of nylon stockings
bodypaint (maybe skin colored light pink)
mirrors

+prerecorded visual material consisting of actions and transformation on high speed, different people of different ages probably shot in the same environment(?) as performing. (Eating, talking, being)

+prerecorded voices. Private sounds laughters, farts, humming and also maybe jibberjabber "surgery statements" ex: "...to create the look that you deserve we need to dig into the core of your knee capsule and remodulate the essence of your smooth muscle device"

maybe body double in clay to be able to walk out on your own person (nice ending... like leaving your body... could be nice with a movement breakout in silence as an answer to the audiovisual abuse...)

flat in Brussels

Ambra,
I totally like your idea, but as I said in the workshop it's hard for me to leave my home base (Stockholm) much more than I already do. I will think of ways for me to contribute even if I can't be physically present as much as I wish.

Lotta

Hello everyone,

This blog is the perfect environment/space for not forgetting all the interesting stuff we are hearing or learning from the artists/theoreticans who have given workshops.

The workshops often have a heavy 'weight': we get so much different input (wich is positive), we learn new and get to see many things (also from each other), that it's sometimes very difficult to find some kind of a structure in it.

That's why I felt this certain need to just write some things that kept hanging in my memory-space since the last two Masterclass weeks, by using this blog.

I know we have to make plans for our projects and all that, but I often like to press the pause-bar to 'stop and see and/or goïng into the past' instead of the future.

This brings me to my idea >> rewind <<: STOP and/or go to the past, using your memory-space, find a structure and put it on the blog.

I'll use this method in something I found amazing.

First recollection: As I stop and I go back in time, I remember, and I try to visualize the past workshops, there's something that sticks somewhere in my head: a detail of a work of Marius Watz. On http://youtube.com/watch?v=vjdrlmYKh40 you will see the work am referring to. But the thing you won't see because of the bad resolution of the movie, is the thing I will talk about. When a certain soundfrequency was added by Marius, the circles of his work started to get bigger to a point where you were almost 'in the circles'. What I liked about this — but was not the intention of his work I guess — was the texture you saw on the edges of the circles; you could amost feel or touch the circle because of it's texture. But then, when the frequency got lower the circles got smaller and the texture flowed away.

This simple structure brings me to the simple conclusion that I feel greath with the idea of almost-touching/feeling a pure virtual moving image... So maybe these last words could be a project proposal.

I personally think that it's very interesting to start from an abstract level like this in creating ideas for a project. So I freely invite you all to make use of this pause-button by using this blog. From there on things might automatically grow in maybe a more philosophical direction but still open practical guides.

Multi-Media Flat !

Hallo everybody,I'm Ambra.

Back in Berlin since yesterday night an dthinking about Cimatics projects.

I have to say that I'm quiet happy about the inputs tht I collect through the contac wiht the group.

As a first message I would like to ask to everybodu to gives theyr opininion about my idea to rent a flat together in Brussels around april (before the last workshop ) or after in May.

The idea would be to put a small part of each one budget to rent a flat (more or less empty)made of 4-5 rooms for a period fo 3 weeks.

I imagine to use the flat for work and exibhition at the same time..better say that in my mind I would like to work inside the flat (1 or 2 group-project in each room)and then 2 or 3 times a week to open the flat to public inviting people to share with us works in progress or different installations or performances.

What I like is that insteda of one-day exibhition(which would be anyway possible) teh "Multi-Media Flat"would be a possibility to collect interested persons,perhaps organizing some small conference or explanation of teh works and the collaborations we will build up.

I feel the flat as an Happening and as a chance to better get closer to audience and potential interested people to this "Flat Project".

I have to say I'm quiet exited about it!

I would like to know what you all think about and who would be interested to partecipate in it.

I think is not super easy to find the perfect flat to do that but I also think is not impossible!

I will write again later about my specific interaction that I would like too develop...for the instant I wait your answers and questions.

Good night

Ambra

skype contact : kokoroberlin

PLAZA+:AUDIOVISUAL EVENT 11+12 jan.2008

Friday, January 11, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Location: Plaza futura
Street: Leenderweg
City/Town: Eindhoven, Netherlands
URL: http://www.plazaplus.info
Contact: Olga Mink

In collaboration with Plaza Futura we present two nights of
innovative and artistic audiovisual performances, live cinema,
theatre, dance, installations, live music.

In the programme Plaza+, a selection of international artists are
selected, that work beyond the experimental realm of technology and
live performance. A variety of Live cinema performances include
performances from:
Semiconductor(UK),
Ryoichi Kurokawa(JP),
Visualnaut (UK),
Nokami/Sans Soleil (CA),
DrifterTV (NL).
Ckoe+Nicklebeat (NL)

Selected theatre/dance-performances crossing the boundaries within
technology and audiovisual experience take place in the main theatre-
room. Japanese artist Hiroaki Umeda performs a unique dance-
choreography to create a sensational experience within movement and
light. 'Still life' from Andrea Bozic is an absurdistic theatrical
piece of dispair and two people who will never meet. It's a film
within a live performance, to create a new kind of reality.

Talks and presentations are presented from international researchers.
Xarene Eskander (USA)
presents the book, 'vE-"jA:Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video'.
Dutch researcher and curator Annet Dekker (Montevideo) presents her
examinations
on VJ-ing related to new phenomena such as games as 'Second life.'

Playgrounds (Leon van Rooij) selected a special video-programme of
artistic video-screenings,
along with live audio-visual performances by Kijkshock. The
interactive and architectural
light-installation 'L1ghtsc00p' by Roel Verlinden and Olga Mink, will
be premiered during PLAZA+.

More info please visit http://www.plazaplus.info

Date: 11 &12 januari 2008
Location: Plaza Futura, Leenderweg 65,
Eindhoven, 040-2946848 or 040 294 6848 (Plaza Futura)
or via www.plazafutura.nl

VJ Illuminations

Happy New Year Cimatics Network!

Every new year I choose one "word-thought-action" that I use throughout the rest of the year to stimulate new approaches to my work.

In 2006, the active word-thought-action triggering my creative advances was improvisation.

In 2007, improvisation gave way to intuition.

In 2008, we're passing the torch to illumination.

May the prophets be forewarned.

---

A few updates from Professor VJ:

First, some of the "process theory" I am generating around live A/V as a fantastic model for developing an "applied aesthetics" as part of a larger philosophical and even spiritual practice is now beginning to merge into a new book. When I say I am trying imagine the art of remixology as an integrated "spiritual" practice, I do not mean in a religious sense but in a more interpersonal/intercultural sense where we all feel more connected to each other via our shared creativity. You can find two recent posts on this subject here and here.

Also, in a new interview exchange with the live A/V artists over at VJ Theory, we discuss live A/V performance and net art culture from a number of different angles highlighting keywords like digital narrative and persona (as in who is your VJ Persona and what's your story?).

Here is the opening excerpt:

Ana

Your book 'META/DATA' was released by MIT Press in May (2007). While reading the presentation of the book on the MIT website, one sentence in particular stood out 'Amerika documents the emergence of new media art forms while he creates them'. This is perhaps because I have recently seen you creating work and being very excited and curious about the technologies you use. But it also goes back to the time I read the excerpt from 'Portrait of a VJ', which is one of the texts published in this new book. In it you relate VJing with narrative and personal history. At the same time you document your life, describe the lifestyle of the VJ, together with the process of producing work (footage and playing).

As an artist and theorist you are part of a net art history. VJing seems to be an emergent topic on your writing and I would like to know how all this comes together: video, net art, VJing, narrative, fiction and theory?

Mark

First, Ana, I would like to say that I am a big fan of your site, VJ Theory. A lot of theory these days is very predictable. It tends to be very insular and targeted at an academically oriented audience that forgets that artists, creative writers, and performers all have their own developing "theories" as well.

Maybe the better word is "poetics" (META/DATA's subtitle is "A Digital Poetics").

The first two sections of the book, entitled "Spontaneous Theories" and "Distributed Fictions" are meant to remix fictional narrative, artist theory, and something like pseudo-autobiography. It's not documentary-styled autobiography but collage-styled memoir that pieces together both my own experience as an internationally travelling artist-writer-VJ as well as quotes, ideas, and stylized phrasings from my primary network. I guess some people might call it autoethnography but my own story is too dominant for it to be that too.

You are right that the book traces a kind of shift in my work from net art to VJ and/or live A/V performance. But to me it's all fluid because I really feel like I am somehow generating these transitions by actively engaging myself in many simultaneous scenes. So, for example, there was a shift for me in the early Nineties from radical novel writing (I have published two novels, The Kafka Chronicles and Sexual Blood) to more multimedia, hypertext narratives that, with the explosion of interest in the Internet, led to my work being embraced by the visual art world as a new form of contemporary art we have since come to call net art. I have made many works of net art including my major trilogy which consists of GRAMMATRON, PHON:E:ME, and FILMTEXT. FILMTEXT was commissioned by Playstation 2 and the ICA in London as part of my net art retrospective there in 2001-2002. The point being, out of nowhere, after releasing FILMTEXT online, I got invited to do two performance related tours of FILMTEXT, one in Europe and one in Japan, and this was great timing because the idea of performing, instead of merely presenting, my net art works had been on my mind for quite some time, especially since I thought the works in my main net art trilogy were in fact quite performative in and of themselves and invited participatory performance from whoever chose to interact with them.

I decided that I would really switch it up and invited my sound collaborator Twine to join me on these two tours which he agreed and I decided to do the visuals and he worked on the sounds. A question immediately presented itself to me: “How should I perform my net art visuals in a live setting?” Well, I had a large library of QuickTime movies that were mostly made of manipulated images from the FILMTEXT website, digital video images that I had shot all over the world, especially near my home in Hawaii, the Australian Outback, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and they somehow screamed for potential remixing. The idea of the laptop VJ was becoming very interesting to me, especially with simple programs like Arkaos but also more experimental programs like VDMX. Remember, this was like late 2001, early 2002! So Twine and I went on the road with our laptops, our source material, and a willingness to learn everything on the fly -- while on tour! I was literally learning how to be a VJ in the hotel room two nights before the first tour in Japan was to start. It ended up being one of the best series of gigs I have ever performed.

As is always the case with me, as I began VJ touring for the next three years, I kept taking notes and writing about what it felt like to "become" a VJ -- in this case, VJ Persona -- and the writing was a mix of fiction, artist poetics, image rhythm theory, etc. Since the transition from net artist to VJ was seamless, the net art poetics I had been generating between 1995-2002 was still stimulating my thinking too -- so I was able to blend them together into what I called digital flux personas, where the central character in my “fictional poetics” could become many things at once – a net artist, theorist, VJ, Professor, novelist, whatever. In the end, VJ Persona became a kind of playah.